Articles

For 20 years inventive trumpeter-cornetist Ron Miles has had a special musical relationship with guitarist Bill Frisell, and this trio outing unites them with drummer Brian Blade. The buoyant “Comma” features Miles’ golden tones supported ...

After seeing Sam Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country, Jean Renoir said, “Mr. Peckinpah knows much about the music of the soul.” But Peckinpah also knew much about music itself. Famous for his action sequences and ...

“Name some of the iconic, landmark albums in jazz history,” said my friend, an acclaimed improvising musician. We ran through John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Charles Mingus’ Mingus Ah Um, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue ...

In Issue 219 I wrote an overview of contemporary female jazz singers that bypassed the most well-known vocalists. Since that issue I’ve kept listening, and gradually a new list was created. Like last time, I ...

While Richard Mohr and Lewis Layton were mesmerizing audiophiles, RCA also released a series of spectacular sounding Henry Mancini “soundtracks.” It started with his 1958 jazz score for Peter Gunn and evolved into his famous ...

Classic live albums recorded at legendary clubs are a vital part of jazz history. To name but a few, the Five Spot, the Village Vanguard, Birdland, and the Half Note all have timeless records associated ...

Many of us have been turned off by the commercialism and the manic shopping syndrome that threatens to spoil the holiday season; one would hope that something deeper was involved. Fortunately the real point comes ...

This band of young jazz musicians follows in the classy-cool tradition of Shorty Rogers & His Giants, a tastefully swinging late 50s-early 60s outfit led by a principal creator of the West Coast sound. Recorded ...

Veteran guitarist Khan hinted at this Afro-Caribbean direction on his previous outing, 2011’s Parting Shot, as well as some of his past Eyewitness recordings from the 80s. With Dennis Chambers on drums, Ruben Rodriguez on ...

The voice was gruff, impassioned, and avuncular: “When you’re in New York, let’s get together and you can look through my records.” It was Jerry Gladstein, the former publisher of FI magazine and former proprietor ...